Win32 API Programming with Visual Basic

The book is old but it gives a good explanation on how to implement win32 API programming techniques in basic and also explains how this whole idea works. It seems to be useful for a beginner, later one can extend this knowledge in more recent and modern implementation of the same idea. The Book I purchased was a used one but it was clean and arrived fast. For this reason I would consider a very good rating point for the provider.

This is a good book to have if you're interested in the Win32.

good old school books cheap

First, this seems like mostly a C book, not a VB book as the title implies. Sure, the C structures and function call variables are usually provided w/translations (but not always!). And there is a whole chapter on VB strings. But I got the impression the author doesn't know a ton about VB and why a VB programmer might want/need to concern himself with the API function calls. This didn't phase me a ton because I know C, but I thought a lot of the text wasn't much about VB at all. First-and-a-half, the author is running Windows NT, so if you're like me and on Win 95/98 you may at times feel like you're being left out. He does go to some lengths to compare and point out the differences between the two OS's, but (again) I felt like he was a C/NT programmer rather than a VB/9x programmer. Second, even though the intro says its for both VB5 and VB6, I use the former and couldn't get the crucial examples on the CD to run without first hunting down and finding the needed DLL's on the I-Net one-by-one. This was a tedious process because after a program would clear past one error message on startup it'd hit the next one. And so on. This was a huge hassle. It probably didn't help that the one bad spot on my CD was the dll.readme file (maybe all this was pointed out in there) -- I probably should have taken the book back, but then I would have had to wait for them to order another one and for it to come in, go back a third time to get it, etc... Third, the book is not any sort of complete reference to the API functions. Some of the chapters only mention a couple of the functions relevant to the topic, or at least give you the feeling there's more out there that you might want to know about. The functions that are mentioned sometimes only have one or two of their parameters explained (as if the others don't matter). So if you're looking for an API reference book, this probably isn't it. At least most of the typos in the book can be found at O'Reilly's website, though a careful reader can find a couple that haven't been flagged. I expected a better book. At least the writing is clear.

Good reference. Timely arrival.

Most programmers and teachers of programmers have to get beyond Wizards. Usually this has meant in-depth coverage of C++ or C and the Windows API. This book helped me to see how to use the API in Visual Basic. Like most O'Reilly books, a good bit of it is reference, which is helpful to me.

This is a great VB API book. I think it ranks up there with Appleman's books. But this book is different. It is actually fun to read and yet at the same time it covers the important detail. Somehow it makes the details easy to read and fun. This book does a GREAT job of going behind the scenes in the Windows operating system. There's lots of good information about how Windows manages things and then how to work around this. There is an interesting and informed disussion of BSTR's. The author reviews the history of VB3's strings vs. VB4 and higher strings. He also covers the interesting aspects of overcoming VB's limitations of not having signed numbers. His discussion of two's complement storage was really interesting. Where Appleman is encyclopedic, this author goes into deep detail but makes it interesting. It is not one of those simple books with the focus of "here's how to make 500 API calls that might be interesting." This book is VB centric in that it explains the differences between the VB world and the Win32/VC++ world. Then you get this great feeling of insight as to why VB does the things it does. I recommend this book highly, and also recommend the Appleman books. They're different kinds of animals.

I would beware of ordering this through Amazon. I have had to return this book after several attempts of getting the order right. They keep sending me the book without the CD-Rom.. yet the cover and their site states one is included.

Hi First, let me say that this is an excellent programming book on the Windows API programming with visual basic.I highly recommend it.This book does covers Windows operating system there's lots of good information about how Windows manages things and then how to work around this.